Many sellers are scared of getting objections. Worse, they don’t do something to overcome them. They think that getting through one sales call after another can make you get better at it. Well, you won’t!

Today, Jim Brown is going to teach you how you can overcome objections for you to be able to handle sales conversations with much confidence and have better chances at closing.

Jim Brown is a sales coach, a sales trainor, and a sales consultant. He has worked with many large organizations and has closed some significant-sized deals including that $1.2 million deal with Sears. He had almost every objection in the world that was thrown at him.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Jim:

Lessons from Jim’s coolest sales experience when he was a customer:

Neutralize the things you know.

As a seller, you can’t let what you’re selling become a commodity.

What is an Objection?

It’s an excuse of why someone won’t or can’t buy something. But excuses are just reasons.

Why do sellers have a hard time overcoming objections?

They don’t plan for them. People don’t prepare and think through what’s going to happen to them and they just start winging things.

Most people have not been professionally trained to sell.

Put some time and effort in your craft and you’ll get better at it.

Takeaways from Jim’s deal with Sears:

Jim was at that time selling SEO and online marketing services. He thought they had all in tact but it turned out they needed a lot of help.

Come prepared.

Jim spent ten hours preparing for a 30-minute meeting. He knew everything that was going to be said and what could be thrown at him.

Anticipate everything before it happens.

Jim asked for a whiteboard and projector, none was there. But he anticipated that so he came in with the entire PowerPoint, printed out, and bound for everybody who was going to be in the room.

Ask questions.

He started asking questions to get him to reveal the context in which he was going to make the decision.

The Power of Silence

When you’re in a high-dollar negotiation, once you speak and you’re the first person who throws out the number, the next person who talks loses. So they tapped into the power of silence. And the decision-maker then signed the deal.

No Time to Prepare?

You just have to put in the work. Don’t just show up and expect to get better just by getting through your day.

Spend hours role playing and understand how people are going to respond to certain questions.

Practice your craft everyday to get better at it.

You’ve got to put in the time.

How to practice overcoming objections:

Write things down.

This forces your brain to think through all the other avenues that this could be approached.

List down every single objection that the prospect could give you before and after selling.

Spend time just writing out different responses to them. It’s different for every person. You don’t have to script out the response to everything but truly understand instead of just winging it.

Re-read it.

This allows you to re-evaluate and what work needs to be done.

Role-play.

Steps to Effective Negotiation:

Have a goal.

The first goal of a cold call is just to have a conversation. Have a goal at very single appointment, every touch point, every meeting that you have.

Prepare.

Think through every single scenario where your prospect may go and the things they may bring up.

Empathize with your buyer.

Imagine you were in their shoes and figure out the things you would be concerned about or you would try to accomplish if you were them. Understanding that situation allows you to have empathy of that buyer so your answers and responses can align with what they’re trying to accomplish.

Be okay with hearing and saying the word no.

This is very frustrating and a lot of sales reps are not comfortable with hearing and saying no. If you don’t have a walkaway point, you’re dead in the water. You’re going to get destroyed in the negotiation. Have a hard walkaway point. Know what your bottom line is but also know why that is your bottomline

Set the ground rules.

Create a mutual context throughout the entire playing. This is the best way to start the process to have an effective negotiation. Jim recommends this book on negotiation:Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz

Have a process for things.

Understand what would allow the prospect to go from one stage of the buying cycle to the next stage, how they need to get the deal done, and what that means. This way, you know where you are in the process.

Jim’s Major Takeaway:

You will never get anything in life that you don’t ask for so start asking. The absolute worst thing you can be told is no. You can’t lose anything that you never had. So if you get told no, so what? You didn’t have it to begin with.

Episode Resources:

Download Jim’s workbook to help you break down the individual goals you need to get to where you want to go. Get it at www.SalesTuners.com/roadmap for free.

Donald is the host of the popular sales podcast,"The Sales Evangelist". He is the founder of The Sales Evangelist Consulting Firm where he helps small companies develop killer sales process to scale their business and increase growth.Donald is also an award-winning speaker, sales trainer, and coach. He's a big fan of traveling, South Florida staycations and high-quality family time. Donald has a belief that “anyone” can sell if they have the desire and receives the proper training.